When Cincinnati and its vicinity needed help, Mr. Edmonds returned to his home city. The Omaha situation by this time could spare Mr. Lies for Dayton. To Piqua, Sidney and other Ohio and Indiana flood points went James F. Jackson of the Cleveland Associated Charities and other workers from various organizations. The news from the Ohio and other floods almost swamped that of an isolated disaster in Alabama where a tornado devastated the town of Lower Peachtree. To handle the relief at this point the Red Cross dispatched William M. McGrath of the Birmingham Associated Charities, who had seen service a year ago in the Mississippi floods.
To work under the direction of these executives, agents have been drafted from the staffs of charitable organizations scattered throughout the entire middle West, and even as far east as New York. Close co-operation was at once established between this force, hastily organized local committees and various branches of federal and state government service. In Ohio the resources, equipment and staffs of the army, the Public Health and Marine Hospital Service, the life-saving service, the militia, the naval militia, and state departments of public health, have all been applied promptly to the problem of emergency relief. Governor Cox of Ohio, as ex-officio chairman of the Ohio Red Cross State Commission, did much to assure this early co-operation.
Following the first work of rescue and relief, sanitation looms up as one of the gravest problems of the Indiana and Ohio valleys. Immediately upon the arrival of the secretary of war at Dayton a sanitary officer was appointed, who divided the city into sixteen districts, each in charge of a district sanitary officer. Each of these selected his own staff from among local physicians and volunteer physicians from other cities. Red Cross nurses in considerable numbers were early supplied. Instructions in brief form have been sent broadcast over the city giving definite directions to the inhabitants for the safeguarding of health. The sewer and water systems are being reopened as rapidly as possible.
Early this week the expectation was that, although the dead in the city would not total 200, it would be necessary to feed many thousands of people for a week and several thousand for several weeks. The Dayton situation, though more severe, was typical of what was to be found in other stricken towns.
The extent of the Omaha disaster is already reported in statistics which are said to be complete and accurate. The summary includes: 115 lives lost; 322 seriously injured; at least 1,000 slightly injured; 822 houses destroyed: 2,100 houses partially wrecked; property loss estimated at $7,500,000; 733 families being fed in relief stations (March 30); 59 dead; 150 injured and $1,000,000 property loss in surrounding towns. Efforts are being made by the real estate exchange to prevent the raising of rents. The plans suggested for rebuilding include a county bond issue of $1,000,000 and the securing of other money from the packing and railroad companies to be loaned without interest.
President Wilson's call to the nation for relief, and the quick action of governors and mayors in rallying their states and cities, started emergency supplies and funds for supplementing the tents, blankets and rations which the army and militia had rushed into the field. The National Cash Register Company, whose undamaged factories in Dayton were of great value in providing shelter and space for relief administration, secured through its officers in other cities supplies and money which were promptly forwarded. The company officials did much to systematize the local relief, and department heads assumed charge of different divisions of the work. Organization charts and diagrams were printed at the factory so that the people of the city could act intelligently.
Early this week the relief funds were reported to have reached $408,000 in New York, $300,000 in Chicago, $105,000 in Boston, and varying sums in other cities. Most of the money was contributed through the Red Cross. Contributions received at its Washington headquarters totalled $816,000, with New York first, Massachusetts second and Illinois third in size of contributions.
Some small gifts were as significant as the larger ones. A young man who appeared to be a poorly paid clerk came to the Red Cross office in New York at the noon hour last Friday and pulled from his pocket a five dollar and a one dollar bill. The person in charge asked him if he was not giving more than his share, and suggested that he keep the one dollar hill. "No," said he, "I've kept some small change for carfare and lunch, and tomorrow's pay day." One letter accompanying a small contribution read:
"Just one short year ago, when the ill-fated Titanic deprived me of mine all, the Red Cross Society lost not a moment in coming to my aid. Through you I now wish to give my 'widow's mite' to help the stricken ones in the West, and I only wish I could make it a thousand times as much."
Emergency supplies and funds have been prompt and abundant, but the extensive work ahead of lifting household and community life out of desolation justifies and requires a very large fund. For, as Mr. Devine, with the San Francisco catastrophe in the background of his experience, telegraphed after reaching Dayton: "The disaster is appalling even if the loss of life is less than it was feared."